Congerstone to Stoke Golding via Snarestone

Well, what a day. After the lovely weather yesterday, it rained. And rained. And rained.

We'd planned to go to Shackerstone and get the Heritage Steam Train down to the "Battle of Bosworth Country Park". Unfortunately, there is a boat festival at Shackerstone this weekend, and every available mooring spot on the canal was stacked with "Historic Boats", sometimes 3 deep across the cut.

Manoeuvring through the boats in the wind and the rain was a challenge, but we managed without hitting anything (though in the process, we did lose an umbrella).

Eventually we reached the current end of the Ashby Canal at Snarestone:

Thankfully there was a pause in the rain while we looked around.

After turning the boat around (always an interesting exercise), we headed south again. Predictably, the rain started again, and we had a repeat of manoeuvring through all the boats at Shackerstone.

But eventually, we've arrived near Stoke Golding. The sun is now shining, and it looks to be a good evening.

That's the end of this voyage for us - it's been an interesting and enjoyable trip.

16.5 miles and one tunnel (twice) today.

Burton Hastings to Congerstone

Another lovely day for boating - not constant sunshine, but enough of it not to feel cold. Why isn't the British Summer always like this?

We've gently pootled up the Ashby Canal - it really is a lovely rural canal - nothing dramatic, just pleasant scenery and the occasional small village. Unlike the dire warnings from a few years ago, navigation hasn't been a problem, nor have moorings - there are now many more places to moor than the 'official' ones marked on the map, though like everywhere else, so many moorings seem to be occupied by boats there for the duration...

The various wharves and marinas on the canal all look very well looked after - quite a change from some of the other canals - all giving the impression of a canal that people really care about.

We are now moored near Congerstone, which is a one pub village vaguely near Market Bosworth.Barney and I have been for a 3.5 mile walk through the local fields and towpath, so he's a bit happier than when we've only been able to walk up and back the towpath for a while.

14 miles and no locks today.

Newbold to Burton Hastings (Ashby Canal)

Another day of reasonable progress along the bits of the Oxford and Coventry canals that we have done in the past.

Newbold Tunnel has now been "decorated" with coloured lights - I'm not convinced that this was the best use of scarce money to be spent on the canals, but judge for yourself:

We stopped for a "pie and a pint" at the Greyhound in Hawksbury:

Then following the usual wait for the stop lock, we travelled briefly on the Coventry Canal to Marston Junction, where we had an "interesting" turn into the Ashby Canal, at which point, the pace slowed and the countryside changed to a much more rural feel.

We're currently moored in the middle of nowhere just before the village of Burton Hastings (a bit south of Hinkley). And the forecast rain has just arrived, which is nice timing.

16.5 miles and half a lock (1') today.

Napton to Newbold

From our moorings at Napton, Barney and I walked around the canal and up Napton hill past the windmill:

Having rather slowly worked our way along the (southern) Oxford canal, we decided we had better get moving if we were going to reach our destination before we had to hand the boat back, so today has been a bit of a marathon.

From just past Napton, we joined the Grand Union Canal to Braunston, then headed north again back on the Oxford Canal again. Braunston was busy (even though we avoided most of it), being a sunny bank holiday Sunday.

One of the subplots of mooring early yesterday was to give the hire boats a chance to settle down before we returned to the water. Unfortunately, today was a BAD day for hire boats. Mostly near misses (and amusing amount of engine use - one of them looked like it was trying to be a jet-ski from the amount of spray from the back), but one managed to hit Vagabond quite hard. Only a bit of paint missing thankfully...

Apart from the hire boats, the morning went very well, and we managed to get 12 miles to just before the Hillmorton locks:

However the locks were SLOW; lots of day boats and people not knowing what they were doing (and the middle lock had only one lock functional, and that was slow because the top gate leaked so much), so we spent the best part of 2 hours getting through the three locks.

Then we got stuck behind the slowest boat we've ever seen on the canals - going past other boats, it went so slowly that I had to take the engine out of gear most of the time, which made maneuvering rather difficult. But eventually, we reached Newbold, and are now moored up in the sunshine trying to decide if we should go to the pub or just relax on the boat.

17.5 miles and 3 locks today.

Wormleighton to Napton

After a very pleasant evening at Wormleighton, we set off just after four other boats, fearing long delays at the locks. The weather forecast was also decidedly horrible (showers), so we had few expectations of a good day.

In travelling to Napton, the boat must have faced all points of the compass at some time - the canal is really wiggly. But very pleasant watching the scenery change. Once we got to the top lock (and with only a couple of minor showers), the expected wait didn't really materialise, and we proceeded down the 10 locks at a reasonable pace - OK, it could have been faster with an infinite crew and less hire boats on their first day out, but...

We're now moored at Folly Bridge, just below Napton Lower lock. Though busy with people and boats, it's a really nice mooring, with shops and pubs nearby. We had an impressive thunderstorm this afternoon, but now the sun has come out, it is really warm - I'd forgotten how hot a steel boat hull can get. We've decided to stay here and chill out this afternoon, and visit the pub for a meal later on.

Napton Lower Lock (note the volunteer help!):

 Our mooring tonight:

6.5 miles and 10 locks tod

Cropredy to Wormleighton

Another busy day today, though again, a lot of waiting for locks. We seem to get stuck behind a queue of single or minimally crewed boats (though I suppose we're a minimally crewed boat now).

But it's a good opportunity to chat with other boaters, and a couple of young girls from the boat behind us did sterling service helping us through the Claydon lock flight.


Cropredy is a lovely place, with a very good general stores right by the canal.

This is one of the Claydon locks - very scenic:

This is Vagabond at Fenny Compton (just a water stop, though the pub was tempting):

 

This part of the Oxford canal is really interesting - gentle without being boring, though with some of the loops, you do wonder if you're making any real progress.

We're now moored just above Knotts Bridge near Wormleighton - a good spot, and as a bonus, there are enough footpaths for Barney and I to do a 3 mile circular walk passing a few Geocaches on the way.

Luckily, most of the forecast rain held off until we were safely moored and the dog walked.

10 miles and 9 locks today.

 

 

Somerton to just south of Cropredy

A busier day today - we wanted to get to Banbury to do some shopping, so actually managed to set of (just) before 9am...

Like the previous days, the canal itself has been really quiet, but often 2 or 3 boats waiting for a lock. I wonder if we've met up with a lot of boats desperately heading back to Napton to hand them in on Saturday.

Again the weather has been very pleasant, not too hot, and not too cold - ideal for boating.

The canal through Banbury was interesting - very neat and tidy compared to the "real" canal

For the first time this trip, we've found a mooring spot with a nice circular walk for Barney - and as a bonus, a couple of (easy) Geocaches on route. Very quiet as well, though you can hear the occasional train in the distance - but this is far better than the drone of the M40.

12.5 miles, 7 locks and 1 (easy) lift bridge today.